BUSINESS ROUNDUP: MTN’s Momo service loses N22.3bn; Cryptoqueen dupes investors of $4bn; Other stories

Hello, and welcome to Business Roundup this week. Here, we bring you highlights of events that happened during the week -from the capital market to the mainstream business activities, while not forgetting the tech/economy build up.

Here are the Headlines:

• Nigeria’s foreign reserve stabilises, hits $39.1bn for second month
• Cryptoqueen joins most wanted fugitives list, after duping investors of $4bn
• Nigerian govt announces new tax regime on cigarettes, to collect N3,000 per litre of Shisha
• MTN’s Momo service experiences security breach, loses N22.3bn

Summary:

Nigeria’s foreign reserve increased by $674.4 million last month, the Central Bank of Nigeria has revealed.

The latest figure extracted by Ripples Nigeria from the CBN’s daily external reserve tracker, revealed that Nigeria’s foreign reserves rose from $38.48 billion at the start of June to $39.1 billion at the end of the month.

Foreign reserves are assets held on reserve used by a country’s central bank to back liabilities and influence monetary policy.

The United States Department of Justice has issued a $100,000 reward in a bid to arrest one of the ten most wanted fugitives in the country, Ruja Ignatova, known as the Cryptoqueen.

Ignatova was accused of scamming cryptocurrency investors of $4 billion in three years, through her cryptoasset offering, OneCoin, which she positioned as the next bitcoin eight years ago.

The Cryptoqueen began prompting the digital coin in 2014, and after collecting investment to the tune of $4 billion, she became unreachable. Investors had sent in funds to purchase OneCoin and its education packages.

The Federal Government has announced that it has reviewed its taxes on tobacco products in the country.

In a message posted on its Social media accounts on Thursday, It noted that tax on cigarettes increased by 30 per cent as part of its control measures against public health.

The message quoted the Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora speaking at the launch of the Tobacco Control Data Initiative Dashboard in Abuja.

MTN Nigeria subsidiary, Momo Payment Service Bank Limited lost N22.3 billion following a security breach on the fintech’s system, which forced the company to shutdown operation temporarily.

The incident occurred on May 24, 2022, after Momo PSB processed 700,000 transactions, sending proceeds into about 8,000 third party accounts domiciled in 18 banks. Efforts to retrieve the fund has now resulted to the firm filing a lawsuit six days after, with the financial institutions as defendants.

Read also:BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Crude oil trades at $111/barrel; Price of beverages, sweetened drinks to go up; Other stories

In the suit marked FHC/L/CS/960/2022, it was gathered that the N22.3 billion were transferred to Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, First Bank, Access Bank, Union Bank, Wema Bank, Sterling Bank, and Polaris Bank.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Investors trade N24.4bn worth of shares as financial sector leads activities

Investors in the Nigerian capital market traded 1.348 billion shares worth N24.487 billion in 22,155 deals this week.

This surpassed 1.121 billion shares valued at N13.703 billion which exchanged hands in 22,350 deals last week.

The Financial Services Industry led the week’s activity with investors trading 1.009 billion shares valued at N 6.796 billion in 11,352 deals.

The Conglomerates Industry followed after 79,616 million shares worth N144.549 million exchanged hands in 689 deals.

On the tech scene, Planet3R, up4grabs.ng, Wattpad, AlGooru, Amazon, Moove, Sava, SnapChat were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

A Lagos-based classified marketplace, up4grabs.ng, has launched service as a platform connecting sellers and buyers.

Also, Amazon, an American e-commerce company, says it is looking to recruit qualified persons for seven positions based in Lagos, Nigeria.

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